The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-19
Restoring Fertility.
Ience Country Gentleman.

Correspondence Country Gentleman.
In the beginning Of the present century much
of this rundown land lay ont in commons l
many years ago heard an old man say he remem-
bered when clover WAS introduced in this sec
ton. That was probably as long ago or further
back than the Revolution. Then the more
thrifty farmers began to use land plaster. and
soon lime came into general use and more lat
terly commercial fertilizers At present the
best farmers add to all these system of winter
cattle feeding which all the hay, corn fod-
der, corn and oats grown on the farm, together
with large quantities of purchased bran and
sometimes Western corn. These lands are with.
out doubt, producing much heavier crops of all
kinds than they have ever done. Must we then
conclude that the fertility of these soils has been
restored. and that they are richer in plant food
than evera Not by any means.
II we take two pieces Of land, one Of which has
been brought to the high state of fertility men,
toned above, and the other from which the
original timber has just been removed, and put
them through q similar and severe course of
cropping the recuperated land will show signs
of exhaustion much sooner than the new" land.
We shall find that the fertilizer manufactured
in natures laboratory has much greater staying
properties than that furnished by our manure
heaps. In other words, there is much
larger supply of available fertility in the new
lands
The same remark holds good even to much
greater degree in regard to the Western prairies
where the annual vegetation for ages has decayed
and added humus to the soil, in some cases to
the depth of many feet
doubt if it is practicable to restore run down
lands to their original condition, and this, l
think, lie DR.. Lawes's position. Land may be
| farmed, and yield small profit, and without de-
| terioration, by fattening-not raising-animals
and selling butter-not milk. Grain and hay
fed in that way is said to return 80 per cent of
its manurial value to the soil. and this with the
use of clover, ought to keep the land in good
| heart, as nature is always at work dsintegrat-
/ ing pulverizing and dssolving the rock, thus
increasing the supply of available inorganic mat
| ter in the SOIL
These slow processes are not sufficient, and
! man must supplement and accelerate them.
Frost heat. rain, drought, etc, were here before
| man, but he supplements these agencies by lime,
/ gypsum and other stiInuiants, and takes to his
| work array of improved machinery and i'm
provements for torturing the soil that our fore
| fathers never dreamed of. The soil ia thus
/ goaded into producing heavy and numerous
| crops, and a corresponding exhaustion takes
/ place.
And yet there is no such thing as "worn-
| out" SOIL Old Dame Nature yields up her treas
ures slowly. If all the plant food in the soil
! were available, man would, long ago, have re-
duced the earth to q bowling wilderness
| think it is the author of ''Ten Acres Enough
who says: ''Give me the ground. no matter how
| poor. Tor the crops to stand on, aud will put
the fertilizer at the roots This will. no doubt,
do for the market gardener and fruit-grower
| in the vicinity of cities, but cannot be profita-
| bly, carried out in the growth of cereal crops
| think many overeslimate the value of a crop
| OF clover plowed down fertilizer. 1t adds a
| quantity of carbonaceous matter to the soil, and
| possibly some nitrogen The inorganic ele-
| ments were there before The decomposition of
| the large amount of vegetable matter may re-
lease plant food that is locked up in other COM
| binations My experience with blowing down
| clover has been that the immediate effect is a
large growth of straw and not much wheat.
/ while the second years crop shows very little
effect from if, and after that little or good Is
visible from it. Where nature has grown a crop
| OF tmber-perhaps it took ages to do tive may
grow ten or fifteen crops in succession.